Why Walt Disney (DIS) Stock is a Compelling Investment Case

Third Point recently released its Q2 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. The fund posted a return of 10.8% for the quarter, underperforming its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index which returned 20.5% in the same quarter. You should check out Third Point’s top 5 stock picks for investors to buy right now, which could be the biggest winners of the stock market crash.

In the said letter, Third Point highlighted a few stocks and Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is one of them. Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is a mass media and entertainment conglomerate. Year-to-date, Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) stock lost 10.2% and on August 7th it had a closing price of $129.93. Here is what Third Point said:

“During Q2, we initiated a long position in The Walt Disney Company when shares traded down on fears that closures of theme parks and movie theaters due to the coronavirus pandemic would cripple the company. A slew of sell‐side analysts had recently downgraded the stock but we believed they failed to grasp that the pandemic also provided Disney with an important opportunity – to accelerate a plan to bring its blockbuster content directly to the consumer via streaming, which will further elevate Disney’s position as the world’s pre‐ eminent media company. Streaming is Disney’s biggest market opportunity ever with potentially $500 billion of revenue spread across over a growing market of 750 million current broadband homes globally ex‐China, dwarfing the size of Disney’s current addressable markets (roughly $100 billion between global box offices and theme parks). Disney’s dominant position in the global media landscape sets up the company to take a meaningful chunk of the growing DTC streaming market, shown by the early success of Disney+. In less than nine months, Disney+ attained 60 million global subscribers, a milestone that took Netflix over seven years to meet.

On August 4th, Bob Chapek addressed the market after his first full quarter as Disney’s CEO. We were pleased that he views DTC as Disney’s “top priority” and believe his decision to premiere a tentpole film like Mulan through Disney+ is a defining moment. We encourage Disney to continue leveraging its new digital platforms to further connect fans with their iconic content and brands and, as Mr. Chapek said, “take full advantage of the opportunity” available to Disney today.”

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Last month, we published an article revealing that Evermore Global Advisors is bearish about Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) stock. The investment firm believes that the company’s business operations faces challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Q1 2020, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)  stock decreased by about 14% from the previous quarter (see the chart here), so a number of other hedge fund managers don’t seem to agree with Disney’s growth potential. Our calculations showed that Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is ranked #20 among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.

The top 10 stocks among hedge funds returned 185% since the end of 2014 and outperformed the S&P 500 Index ETFs by more than 109 percentage points. We know it sounds unbelievable. You have been dismissing our articles about top hedge fund stocks mostly because you were fed biased information by other media outlets about hedge funds’ poor performance. You could have doubled the size of your nest egg by investing in the top hedge fund stocks instead of dumb S&P 500 ETFs. Below you can watch our video about the top 5 hedge fund stocks right now. All of these stocks had positive returns in 2020.

Video: Top 5 Stocks Among Hedge Funds

At Insider Monkey we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. With Federal Reserve creating trillions of dollars out of thin air, we believe gold prices will keep increasing. So, we are checking out gold stocks like this small gold mining company. We go through lists like the 10 most profitable companies in America to pick the best large-cap stocks to buy. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. We read hedge fund investor letters and listen to stock pitches at hedge fund conferences. If you want to find out the best healthcare stock to buy right now, you can watch our latest hedge fund manager interview here. You can subscribe to our free enewsletter below to receive our stories in your inbox:

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.